Watchdog- What follows is the story of one of the most thoroughly disgraceful special interest policies ever brought into being in these United States. It is also one of the most fiendishly intricate government programs ever conceived, and its name is Ethanol.
Back in the Nixon years scientists discovered that tetraethyl lead used to improve combustion in gasoline led to serious environmental and health damage. Adding lead to gasoline was banned. That was a good thing.
But gasoline needed an oxygenating additive to turn poisonous carbon monoxide into harmless carbon dioxide. For a while a petroleum-based compound called MBTE filled the bill, but if it escaped into the water supply, it produced seriously negative effects.
Meanwhile the Arab oil embargo of 1973 raised the cry for “energy independence.” Let’s produce our own motor fuels! This cry combined with the need for an oxygenating compound other than MBTE focused attention on another compound, ethanol, also known as “grain alcohol” and, when produced by moonshiners, “white lightnin.” MORE
I am no engineer, but it does not seem wise to place your energy supply in the only thing more unpredictable than the Arabs: The Weather
I hate govt interference in everything and it’s fucked up the economy for all whether you use a product or not, the govt forces the economy to into bad habits.
EVERYTHING that comes out of the FedGov is total, complete, unmitigated BULLSHIT. People are starving so that we can satisfy the enviro-nazis lusts for control of our lives.
Show me where in the Constitution the FedGov is authorized to abrogate the rights of citizens to protect the “environment?”
Ever so interesting to watch our politicians scheme, plot and invent ways to move more tax money to Washington and then spend an equal amount of time scheming, plotting and inventing ways to get some of it back to where it came from!
See if there is a pure gas station near you: http://pure-gas.org/
The federal government undo a terrible mandate? Surely you jest?
How many Republican congressmen does it take to repeal a government subsidy?
(Answer: RINOs and Dems will never vote to repeal any subsidy)
I’m retired and crank the truck up about once a week for MD appointments and grocery/bar days.
I only put marine fuel in, no ethanol. The engine runs so seldom and for such a short time, it’s a good idea.
It’s most likely the last vehicle I will ever own so taking good care of it is not an option. That 5.7 liter likes it too.
Ethanol is for drinkin’, not drivin’.
Meanwhile, corn on the cob $0.69/ear at the store last week.
On sale.
Yikes. 6 ears for 2 bucks in local store here, out on the farm (30 miles west) can get 10 to 12 ears for 2 bucks… some of the best sweet corn, you can eat 3 ears with dinner easily. Out of season it’s 50 cents an ear and tastes like hay.
We could have a magic pill that turned sewage into high-quality, pure, high-octane gasoline, and the sh!tstains from “the farm belt” in CON-gress would insist that ethanol is essential to the health and well-being of the nation.
Meanwhile, as we turn food into fuel, people all over the world die of hunger. Lest you think I’m a SJW, I think the USA should trade food for strategic products or use it to cement alliances. After all, you can’t eat chromium, titanium or middle-east oil.
No. And stop calling me “Shirley”! 😆
You forgot the Farm Lobby®.
Sadly, Texas is hardly represented on that “corn-free” list. However, several places I frequently visit in Oklahoma have multiple corn-free gasoline outlets. Especially cool are Norman and Tulsa, each with multiple outlets. I notice that a number of these seem to be “Sinclair” brand gasoline, which makes me curious about two Sinclair fuel sellers I know of here in Houston.
Thanks for posting this!
It’s called the tax fraud jig. They love tax money. They can never get enough. Even after they wash what they coerce through the books of Washinton D.C. to give it the sheen of legitimacy they still are not satisfied and want more money. They print it, steal it, take it and spend it even when they don’t have it! The impose taxes (sometimes they tax taxes) imposts, fees, penalties, assessments, and duties. They tax property, health care, food, and earnings (purchases of everything with multiple layers of taxes all at once), They tax you when you are born while alive and they tax you when you die! They seem to believe that their only purpose for being in elected office is to take money from the citizens. It is their #1 priority and they spend the majority of their time either collecting currently approved taxes or trying to impose new additional taxes. All their other duties, such as protecting the country from an illegal invasion, is always on the back burner. After all, they need more tax money to fund the illegal invaders!
I go out of my way to find 100% Gasoline for anything I run. Indeed, it is time to cast off the ethanol from our fuel supplies.
Never happen. Boehner will find it in the Constitution if he has to.
We need to get that excess ethanol out of tanks and into used wine barrels where it can start aging properly.
Corn ethanol under the trade name “Pappy van Winkel” sells for $1200 a fifth for no better reason than having sat in an old wooden barrel for 25 years (or more…).
I can get used wine barrels for $25 apiece…anyone know where to hijack a tank car full of pure ethanol…??
Unfortunately, they have to start the primaries in Iowa – political suicide to say you are going to eliminate this boondoggle.
The only 2 cycle machine I have is a trimmer. I ended up having to buy $6 a quart Truefuel as the ethanol tainted gasoline and oil goes bad before I can go through it. Fortunately, it only takes a few ounces per use in our city Lo.